Since adopting the habit of reposting Texoblogosphere entries, I haven't left the intro intact until this week:

With this week's lefty blog post and news roundup, the Texas Progressive Alliance urges our government to attend to the much-needed care of our American brothers and sisters in Puerto Rico.

Amen. However, I couldn't leave it uncommented upon, especially after hearing the relevant facts on Democracy Now! yesterday and this morning. On Puerto Rico alone, there are about 3.5 million American citizens without electricity, potentially for four to six months after Hurricane Maria's visit. Fuel, food, and clean water are in short supply. Even those who have generators cannot get gasoline or diesel to run them. We're already looking at more human beings dying from the heat, due to lack of air conditioning and refrigeration and potable water, than from the storm itself.

Meanwhile, our alleged president has his knickers in a twist over NFL players, coaches, and management expressing some solidarity with each other and with the victims of the systemic racism in our law enforcement agencies. The Short-Fingered Tweeter took several days getting around to mention Puerto Rico at all, and then he couldn't help but post some shit about what the territory owes Wall Street.​ He stopped well short of echoing Rep. Jeb Hensarling's "God is telling you to move" sentiments, mainly because that would likely mean 3.5 million more Puerto Ricans moving onto the mainland.

Speaking of sports and athletes: Following the recent massive earthquakes in southern Mexico, the Federación Méxicana de Fútbol postponed all soccer matches from the last two weeks, allowing players to visit their homes and assist with cleanup. Liga MX is due to restart today, but the seismic activity has continued in Oaxaca. Our neighbors to the south know that some things take precedence over professional sporting events. This morning, reflecting on that made me wonder whether Major League Baseball will take, or be given, a chance to help Puerto Rico. Over the years, Puerto Rico has furnished hundreds of Major Leaguers, many of them All-Stars. In their tailspin years before moving to Washington DC, the Montréal Expos played about a fourth of their home games in San Juan.

At this very moment, the Houston Astros have three native puertorriqueños on their expanded September roster: DH Carlos Beltran, catcher Juan Centeno, and shortstop Carlos Correa. The Astros have clinched their division. They don't need these guys for the last week of the regular season. Even if MLB isn't willing to postpone the playoffs (constrained as the baseball season is by weather patterns), giving them some time off would be the human thing to do. Indeed, after Harvey, we might say that it's the Houston thing to do.

Grits for Breakfast suggests that a public defender for criminal appeals cases would reduce waste, increase inefficiency, and protect the civil rights of those enmeshed in the so-called justice system.

Sophie Novack at the Texas Observer asked some Texas congressional Democrats where they stood on single-payer, and the responses were a little dodgy and disconcerting.

The AP, in the Waco Tribune Herald, reports that the EPA has removed several hundred containers of "potentially" hazardous material from toxic waste sites in Texas, but won't say where they came from, what the contaminants might be, or even whether there remains a danger to the public.